Wednesday, March 23, 2016

THE move by
the National Assembly to restructure the parliamentary standing committees is
routine and has nothing to do with allegations of corruption as alleged in the
social media and one local media outlet. A statement issued to the media early
this week by the assembly’s Communication’s Department, noted that the changes
are routine and aimed at improving efficiency of the parliamentary committees. “Objective
of the changes made by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Job Ndugai,
have considered new challenges and needs that came up after the new
parliamentary committees were formed in January this year,” the statement read
in part. The statement further pointed out that if there are any MPs who have
gone against ethics and are involved in any criminal offences, responsible
investigating institutions should execute its responsibility accordingly. It
further pointed out that parliament, under the authority of the Speaker, can
also conduct its own investigations through the Parliamentary Powers, Privileges
and Ethics Committee. “Under regulation 116(3), the national assembly speaker
has the authority to make changes in parliamentary standing committees and can
do so any time he deems right, like he did early this month when 15 legislators
wanted to be assigned to other parliamentary committees due to various reasons,
including health,” the statement said. The assembly noted that the changes are
also meant to improve efficiency of the committees, following yesterday’s
reshuffle where 27 legislatures were assigned to other committees. The same
sentiments were echoed earlier in the day by the national assembly Speaker, Job
Ndugai, who said no legislator is under investigation by the Assembly following
allegations of corruption in social media and a local media out, although he
added that there might be a possibility for other state organs to conduct their
own investigations.

The Speaker of the National Assembly of Tanzania Honorable Job Ndugai.

Mr Ndugai stressed that the changes are not unusual in such
settings to improve efficiency and are not related with the allegations of
corruption. Making the revelations during a Clouds FM programme ‘Power
Breakfast’ yesterday, Mr Ndugai said he has no report on the corruption claims
but acknowledged to have heard the allegations levelled at parliamentary
committee chairpersons and deputy chairpersons. “I want to make it clear that
the national assembly has no report on these allegations of corruption against
the legislators -- and I am appealing to the public to have trust in the
Parliament,” he noted. Speaking on reports that some MPs have written official
letters resigning from the committees to pave way for investigations over
allegations of corruption, Mr Ndugai said he has received 12 letters from
legislators wanting to resign from the committees. “I have indeed received
their letters of resignation over such allegations of corruption but I am
surprised by the move because the changes have not touched any of them,” Mr Ndugai
told “Power Breakfast’’. The Speaker made changes in the structure of the
parliamentary standing committees recently by dropping six chairpersons and
vice-chairpersons as well as reshuffling members from one committee to another.
This means that three committees will have to elect new chairpersons while
three others will choose new vice-chairpersons as provided through Standing
Order Number 116 (10) of the House. The new changes come hardly three months
after the Speaker announced the new line-up of members for the committees of
the 11th Parliament. “Mr Ndugai has made the changes through Standing Order
number 116 (3), which gives him power to appoint parliamentarians to form the
committees,” according to a statement issued by the Parliamentary
Communications Unit. The statement attributed the changes to “new requirements
and challenges after the committees were formed last January.”

A local NGO,
Doris Mollel Foundation (DMF), last week received three oxygen concentrators to
support its ongoing efforts to address premature births in the country. The
equipment worth 10m/- was handed over by GSM Foundation. Receiving the
equipment in Dar es Salaam, DMF founder Doris Mollel said the support came as
part of commemoration of World Prematurity Day which will take place on
November 17. According to her, the equipment will be distributed to referral
hospitals in Shinyanga, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar to address premature births,
the leading cause of death for newborns. Mollel said the national rate of
preterm births has gone up and reports show that approximately 9,000 newborn
babies out of 200,000 die of complications related to preterm births in the
country every year. “Despite low birth rates in the past decade, preterm birth
rates is on the rise worldwide. I urge both public and private actors to join
hands to protect lives of innocent babies who are at high risk,” she appealed. According
to the World Health Organisation (WHO), preterm birth is the leading cause of
newborn deaths and the second-leading cause of mortality in children under the
age of five. However, modern neonatal intensive care has made it possible for
even the tiniest of babies to survive their prematurity. Handing over the equipment, GSM Foundation
representative ShannonKiwamba said the
contribution will help to tackle the challenge in hospitals. Dar es Salaam
Regional Commissioner Paul Makonda commended GSM Foundation for its support. He
urged other people to feel the same and come out to help address such
countrywide challenges. Worldwide reports show that approximately 15 million
babies are born preterm each year, accounting for about one in ten of all
babies born worldwide.

Lack of
awareness on the use of Certificates of Origin (CO) when East Africa business
persons export within the region was a great talk last week in Kigoma’s Kasulu,
a border town between Tanzania and Burundi. Goading the talk was Tanzania
Chamber of Commerce Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA) acting executive director
Magdalena Mkocha, who said last year alone, not more than 10,000 COs were
issued to exporters in Tanzania because of lack of awareness on part of the
small cross border businesses. Mkocha was only commenting on how women faired
when it came to the use of Certificates of Origin when exporting within the
region. She observed that majority of women engaged in cross border trade as
well as other businesses within the region were not familiar with the COs and
the benefits it has to the economic activities they do. Appending a word at the
function, TCCIA District Chairman Pius Luziba said there was a grand need for
women to make use of certificates of origin for them to trade more effectively
in the region. But what is a Certificate of Origin (CO)? A Certificate of
Origin (CO) isan importantinternationaltrade documentattesting thatgoods in a particularexportshipmentare whollyobtained, produced,manufacturedor processed in a particular country. COs also constitute a declaration
by the exporter. Virtually every country in the world considers the origin of
imported goods when determining what duty will be assessed on the goods or in
some cases, whether the goods may be legally imported at all. They are two – ‘Non–Preferential’ and
‘Preferential Cos’. While the former are only ordinary and certify that the
country of origin of a particular product does not qualify for any preferential
treatment, the latter enable products to enjoy tariff reduction or exemption
when they are exported to countries extending these privileges, for example,
GSP Commonwealth Preference Certificate. COs may be needed to comply with letters of
credit, foreign customs requirements or buyer’s request. In most countries,
chambers of Commerce are the key agents in the delivery of certificates of
origin. However in some, this privilege may also be extended to other bodies
such as ministries or customs authorities. In East African, almost all states
are signatories to various protocols associated with the COs. Good enough
chambers of commerce in these states have been mandated to issue certificates
of origins to businesses operating in each respective state. So when a trader makes use of COs, essentially
it means they are marketing or selling the good name of their country, culture,
people and the like. By not making good use of COs it means that one is either
intentionally refusing to advertise their country as well as denying it any
other future probable business. East African chambers have therefore a great
onus to educate businesspersons so that they make use of COs to promote, not
only their respective countries, but also the entire region.

THE company prospecting for oil and natural gas at Ruvu
Block in Coast Region namely Dodsal Hydrocarbons and Power Tanzania will
conduct a drill stem test at the exploration area to find out feasibility of
the discovery after presenting a work plan to the government.Last week, the Minister for Energy and Minerals, Prof
Sospeter Muhongo, announced that the company had discovered 2.17 trillion cubic
feet (tcf) at the block. Officials of Dodsal estimate that the reserve is worth
US $6 billion dollars (about 12trl/-).According to an online
information bank, Wikipedia, a drill stem test (DST) is a procedure for
isolating and testing the pressure, permeability and productive capacity of a
geological formation during the drilling of a well.The test is
an important measurement of pressure behaviour at the drill stem and is a
valuable way of obtaining information on the formation fluid and establishing
whether a well has found a commercial hydrocarbon reservoir. “So far the
company has drilled one well at Mambambakofi- 1 at the block which has been
discovered with 2.17 trillion cubic feet (tcf)”, the Tanzania Petroleum
Development Corporation (TPDC)’s Director of Upstream Operations, Mr Kelvin
Komba, explained at a news conference.

Minister for Energy and Minerals, Prof
Sospeter Muhongo,

In total, the company drilled three
wells in Ruvu Block but two of them have not showed positive results. He added;
“Initial tests such as ‘wire-line logging’ as well as ‘pressure versus depth’
and laboratory tests have been conducted and proved the presence of a gas
reservoir at the block.” The explanation by TPDC sought to clarify a report in
a ‘Kiswahili’ daily newspaper yesterday which had casted doubts on the new
discovery, citing what it described as “flaws in the exploration procedures.” “The
new Petroleum Act which came into force in September last year requires the
contractor at an exploration block to present to the government appraisal
programme after which it will be allowed to drill more wells to carry out drill
stem tests,” Mr Komba expounded. Through the new legislation, a contractor is
required to inform the government of any discovery within 48 hours. The
Petroleum Act, 2015 repealed The Petroleum (Exploration and Productions) Act,
1980 and The Petroleum Act, 2008. The new finding by the United Arab Emirates
(UAE)- based company at Ruvu Block brings the sum of discovered natural gas
reserves to 57.27 tcf in both offshore and onshore wells. Other discoveries
have been made in Songo Songo Island in Lindi Region, Mnazi Bay in Mtwara and
Mkuranga in Coast Region.

In an effort to help address the challenge of access to
quality educational resources among students, Tigo Tanzania in partnership with
Shule Direct, a local online education enterprise, has launched SMS Makini
educational platform to provide educational learning content to students and
teachers. Tigo Corporate Responsibility Manager Woinde Shisael told reporters
during the launching event in Dar es Salaam last week that students will
benefit from the platform by accessing academic materials basing on the
country’s syllabus. She said the move would help to bridge the existing gap of
learning resources in the education sector. Reports show a significant number
of teachers in public schools experience an annual demand of more than 20,000
Science and Mathematics teachers.

Tigo Corporate Responsibility Manager Woinde Shisael

“Through the use of Tigo SMS Makini,
secondary school students and teachers, will be able to access digitalized
notes, tutorials, quizzes, podcasts and videos right from their mobile
handsets,” Woinde explained. The materials available would include History,
Civics, Geography, Physics, Chemistry, English, Biology, English, Mathematics
and Kiswahili subjects. Tigo subscribers would only access free services for
one month thereafter will be required to pay a weekly subscription fee of Sh100
and Sh500 respectively. “To access the service, subscribers will need to send a
key word makini to 15397 and follow instructions” she said. Shule Direct, a
designed platform by Faraja Nyalandu works to address the problem enabling
students to learn independently and provide teachers with qualified teaching
resources. Faraja said the platform target the masses by using an SMS platform
that provide learning and revision quizzes for on-the-go learning on any basic
mobile phone. As of September last year, at least 10,200 had already been
subscribed with the platform while recording 115,000 visitors.

AWARD 1

I won the second prize in policy category of the African Information society Initiative ( AISI) awards 2004 which is annually organized by the United Nations- Economic Commission for Africa ( UNECA) based in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia. On the first photo above standing with other awardees after the Ceremony at the National Settlers monument in Grahamstown, South Africa.This was during the 8th Highway Africa Conference.The second photo shows the cross section of Jounalists from different African countries who attended the ceremony.

AWARD 2

I also won the AISI-GKP/SDC Media Award special reporting on WSIS process and Africa, and conferred with the award in Tunis, Tunisia during WSIS summit in 2005. See the photo above.

AWARD 3

Winner on the Media Competition on writing about " Stigma denial and Discrimination" associated with HIV/AIDS. This was organized by theAssociation of Journalists Against Aids in Tanzania ( AJAAT). On the Photo above President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete of Tanzania, ( then the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation) was the guest of honour during the award giving ceremony.This was at Maelezo auditorium in Dar-es-Salaam September 2005.

AWARD 4

Winner on the Media Competition on writing about "Vulnerable Children" associated with HIV/AIDS This was organized by the Association of Journalists Against Aids in Tanzania ( AJAAT)

AWARD 5

Winner of the National ICT Media Award organized By SWOPNET in the Country. On the photo above Morogoro Regional Commissioner, Brigadier General ( Rt) Saidi Kalembo was the guest of honour during the award giving ceremony which was held at New Sarvoy Hotel in morogoro town.I was awarded a Mobile phone and a tape-recorder.

AWARD 6

I participated in the Media Competition in writing about VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) in Tanzania which was held between July 15th and October 30th 2008 whereby I emerged among the top five winners. The competition was under the program known as “Tanzania bila Ukwimwi inawezekana” which literally means, Tanzania without AIDS disease transmission is possible”. This is a program which was organizedby the Association of Journalists Against AIDS in Tanzania (AJAAT) under TACAIDS funding. In the photo, I am being presented with a certificate of participation by the Chairman of the Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS) Dr. Fatma Mrisho in a colorful ceremony which was held on 22nd December 2008 at Tanzania Information Centre in Dar es Salaam.

AWARD 7

AWARD 8

AWARD 9

I was among the top 17 best selected students who excelled in their final examinations of the 2010/2011 academic year and awarded with the Vice-Chancellor’s prize. I scored 4.5 GPA (First Class) in BA in Journalism. Above I am being given a certificate by the Chairman of the Open University of Tanzania Board of Senate. Standing at the centre facing camera is the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Tolly Mbwette. Extreme left partly hidden is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Elifas Bisanda. This occasion took place during the convocation meeting, a day before the graduation day at the prospective permanent headquarter of the Open University of Tanzania which is currently under construction at Bungo-Kibaha in Coast region 40 kilometers away west of Dar es Salaam city.